6. What is the difference between ambient and stratospheric ozone? 9.

9. Which of the conventional pollutants has decreased most in the

What is destroying stratospheric ozone? recent past and which has decreased least?
7. What is long-range air pollution transport? Give two examples. 10. Give one example of current air quality problems and one success
8. What is the ratio of direct costs and benefits of the Clean Air Act? in controlling pollution in a developing country.
What costs are mainly saved?

CRiTiCal ThinKing anD DiSCUSSiOn

Apply the principles you have learned in this chapter to discuss these
questions with other students.
1. How would you choose between government regulations and
market-based trading programs for air pollution control? Are there
situations where one approach would work better than the other?
2. Debate the following proposition: Our air pollution blows into
someone else’s territory; therefore, it is uneconomical to install
pollution controls, because they will bring no direct economic
benefit to those of us who have to pay for them.
3. Utility managers once claimed that it would cost $1,000 per fish to
control acid precipitation in the Adirondack lakes and that it would
be cheaper to buy fish for anglers than to put scrubbers on power
plants. Does that justify continuing pollution? Why or why not?
4. Economists and scientists often have difficulty reaching common
terms for defining and solving issues such as the Clean Air Act
renewal. How might their conflicting definitions be reshaped to
make the discussion more successful?
5. Why do you think controlling pollutants like mercury is such a dif-
ficult problem? List some of the technological, economic, political,
emotional, and other factors involved. Whose responsibility is it to
reduce these emissions?

DaTa analYSiS how Polluted is Your hometown?

How does air quality in your area compare to that in other places? You
can examine trends in major air pollutants, both national and local trends
in your area, on the EPA’s website. The EPA is the principal agency in
charge of protecting air quality and informing the public about the air we
breathe and how healthy it is.
Go to Connect to find a link to data and maps showing trends in SO2
emissions since 1980. At the same site you can see trends in NOx, CO,
lead, and other criteria pollutants. Examine national trends, then look at
your local area on the map on the same page to answer questions about
trends in your area, and to compare your area to others.

examine pollutant trends in your area on the ePA website.

TO aCCeSS aDDiTiOnal ReSOURCeS FOR ThiS ChaPTeR, PleaSe ViSiT COnneCT aT

www.mcgrawhillconnect.com.

environmental science You will find LearnSmart, an adaptive learning system, Google Earth™ exercises, additional
Case Studies, Data Analysis exercises, and an interactive ebook.

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